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Do not fear the clown, fear the supremacists behind him

Do not fear the clown, fear the supremacists behind him

Last updated on: February 16, 2017 at 2:06 pm by Christy Thomas

Do not fear the clown, fear the supremacists behind him 2017-02-16T14:06:28-05:00 Christy Thomas

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Do not be afraid of the clown; do be afraid of the white supremacists behind the clown

Do not be afraid of the clown; do be afraid of the white supremacists behind the clown (Image courtesy of Dreamstime

We have truth here: the White Supremacist movement found their dupe in the soulless body of 45*, a man whose only goal is life is to be unfetteringly rich and endlessly adored by an impenetrable ring of loyalists.

Sure I’m caught up in the political news. Thanks to a lingering bout with the flu, I have just enough energy to keep up, kind of, with the news, but not enough energy to write.

But a quote from a Karl Rove opinion piece in the WSJ today moved me from my headache-induced lethargy. After listing all the wonderful things that have come out of 45’s White House so far, Rove noted,

Yet these positive moves have been overshadowed by unforced errors, avoidable mistakes and misplaced priorities. Rather than seeing the president as engaged on the big issues, many Americans believe Mr. Trump is more concerned with trivial ones: the size of his inauguration crowd, Meryl Streep’s ungracious Golden Globes speech, and his daughter Ivanka’s fashion line.

The president and his staff would serve the country better by focusing on the economy, jobs and paychecks. Sideshows can be ignored, and even justifiable complaints like leaks of embarrassing classified information can be played down and taken care of quietly.

In other words, if 45 will stop being 45 (ignoring that fact that it was his essential “45-ness” that brought the victory) then everything will work swimmingly well.

Why I am glad the GOP won and the supremacists exposed

I want to go on record as saying this: I’m glad the GOP has taken over our government. There is no better way to see the moral bankruptcy of any political group (or any other group) than to make sure they have nearly unlimited power.

I’m relieved that the dearth of Christian ethics that has left the Evangelical world rotting from the leadership down is being so thoroughly exposed. It is a good thing to have ripped from our understanding any idea that Franklyn Graham, Jerry Fallwell, Robert Jeffress, etc. carry even a smidgen of integrity.

I think it vital that our ideal of our participation in a Democracy with legally elected public servants is now so openly dismissed as a false narrative.

The true narrative of the Trump autocracy will slowly unfold in the next few years. This clip seems to do the best job of anything I’ve found to expose it.

Truth sets us free

Truth sets us free. We have truth here: the White Supremacist movement found their dupe in the soulless body of 45, a man whose only goal is life is to be unfetteringly rich and endlessly adored by an impenetrable ring of loyalists.

As long as the white supremacists can keep 45’s ego burnished and untroubled, they have their clown to keep the people distracted from the evils taking place behind the scenes.

Karl Rove, bless his heart, still seems to think 45 is simply a slightly immature person, but one still aligned with basic GOP principles. Push him to act with a little more self-reflection and self-control and all will be well.

But the whole reason that the alt-right, AKA White Supremacists, AKA neo-Nazi movement has so brilliantly made 45 their front person is that he is incapable of acting as a more mature human being. His antics work superbly well to keep probing eyes focused on exactly the wrong places.

We are in dangerous times. The nature of democracy makes it always vulnerable to those who are genuinely evil.

Church: do not be distracted from the true evil

And this is where the church has its greatest power: we can be the ones who both identify and call out evil.

But we, too, suffer great distraction. Many Christians have been sucked into the subtle call of evil: the idea that 45 will help usher in an age of greater Christian influence on the wider society.

I know it seems contradictory to name this idea as evil, but stay with me a moment.

At any point throughout human history when religious power slides into bed with political power, the end result has always been oppression, murder, dictators blessed with unlimited powers and the exclusion of any who don’t fit the rigid religious mold.

Religiously mandated governments never, ever practice tolerance.

Societies that offer the most hope to the governed do so when religious power operates in a radically different sphere.

Governmental institutions must mandate certain things. The government must have the power to govern adequately and to protect as necessary.

But true religion, the kind of religion both modeled and incarnated in Jesus, practices non-power. Jesus was the least powerful person ever–except he had total power over himself.

He never took power from others or lorded it over others. He gave power to them. “The last shall be first.” “Go and sin no more.” “Take up your mat and walk.” “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” “Your sins are forgiven.” “You shall do far greater things than I.”

Clearly, much of the church world did get taken in by 45’s messianic rhetoric rather than having the discernment to see behind it.

45 said, “Only I can fix it.” Jesus said, “Only you can fix it.”

45, backed and duped by some of the most evil people to walk the earth, insists, “I will be the most powerful person on earth and the world will know it by the way I display it.”

Jesus, instead, suggests that the kingdom of heaven best displays its power in the invisible leaven floating around in the air, in the tiniest of seeds quietly nestling in the ground, sending forth deep, hidden roots from which to spring forth goodness for the world.

Church: we have work to do. If there were ever a time to #resist, that time is now. Just remember that 45 is merely a pawn in the larger movement. Pence is the one they want: a man of great Christian rectitude who will bring his version of an extremely narrow belief system as the only way to be properly religious. That’s the real danger.

Right now, we’re better off with a clown. And we are best off when we recognize that the power is ours to make real change. Let us not be passive here.

*45: shorthand for the Forty-Fifth President of the US. I choose not to use his name as part of the #resist movement.

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